(Not so) Common Knowledge

[GreenGiant]

So I made a realization today when talking to a fellow employee at the company I work for, he was asking about a proposed oscilloscope that we will be getting soon. Asking what it was going to be used for and such.
Now since I have a lot of experience I quickly thought of a good 25-30 tasks that we would use one for around here, and listed a couple. The look on his face made me realize that things that I know as "common knowledge" aren't as widely known as I thought. He is a chemical engineer (specifically lithium ion battery composition) so he has used an o-scope before for data logging on some occasions, but nothing more than that, and he in fact didnt even realize that you could do other things with them like that.

I know I am rambling but I was thinking, what other things do we (the people with some knowledge of electronics/test equipment) know that we find to be common knowledge/sense that most wouldn't have a clue about?

I know from experience that a lot of people know basically what voltage is, and have heard of current, but that's about it.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

 

[CocaCola]

The average person, knows nothing about electricity beyond that when they plug something into the wall outlet or put batteries in something, there should be a sign that it has power and might do something if a switch is pressed...

Everything else related to electricity is magic to them...

And for the above average person that believes they know a little, this quote applies...

"...a little knowledge is apt to puff up, and make men giddy, but a greater share of it will set them right, and bring them to low and humble thoughts of themselves."

 

[GreenGiant]

The average person, knows nothing about electricity beyond that when they plug something into the wall outlet or put batteries in something, there should be a sign that it has power and might do something if a switch is pressed...

Everything else related to electricity is magic to them...

And for the above average person that believes they know a little, this quote applies...

"...a little knowledge is apt to puff up, and make men giddy, but a greater share of it will set them right, and bring them to low and humble thoughts of themselves."

That's a good quote haha.

I guess that I just never realized how much I know, and how much I don't know about other subjects that they are more experienced in. Makes me wonder what others may consider common sense where I would have no idea

 

[donkey]

common sense is not common at all. this spreads across all fields. when I was a chef I had a kitchenhand try to put out a deepfryer fire with water.
when I did computing (lastet about 4 weeks lol) I had a guy come in after he lost all data on his computer, when I found out he was going through some course and was up to the "format" section I told him that was the cause.... 3 days later he was back as he had done it again.
in my current employment I get alot of new guards that are of the belief they are not allowed to touch anyone, even if they are being beaten to a bloody pulp.
the lack of common sense is absolutely amazing.

in electronics I have found just the basic misconceptions, but I have also found the "learned" people sometimes overlook the simplest concept and instead opt for a super duper machine that ends in 000 and costs thousands too, only to use it for about a fifth of its capabilities.

 

[shrtrnd]

I've done the last twelve years in a calibration standards lab.
The most interesting thing I've noted, is that 'highly educated' people in electronics
simply assume the numbers they're reading on their instruments are correct.
There is a void in people considering the concept that the instrument might be out
of calibration, and the precise numbers they're looking for, just might not be accurate.
An electronic test and meansurement instrument may appear to be functioning just
fine, but that doesn't mean the numbers you see are accurate.
I suppose that only matters to people doing precision work. But the 'experts' doing the
precision work often have no clue that their numbers might be wrong.

 

[JMW]

I once worked for a national electronics repair chain. The cell phone tech did not know the 40K$ service monitor being used was capable of many other functions other than cell phones. This person was deeply concerned with the origin of the word "hello" and why it was spelled the way it is. This person primarily worked on AT&T phones. Never once thought to ask if Al and Watson had anything to do with it.